On previous visits to Japan we had often passed ABC cooking schools, where we had seen people cooking a variety of dishes.  We had always thought would that be a great idea to do on a holiday!  This time we thought given we were in Japan for a week we would attend one, so Kym had our hotel book us in for one in English as the website was only in Japanese.

Our class consisted of three people and our instructor. Around us there were three other classes going on, Thai, bread making, and Chinese.  The instructor was Taiwanese but also had very good English.  All the ingredients were cut up and she told us what to do, and in the order, according to the instructions. 

Here is what we made:

• Gyudon- beef bowl
• Miso soup with wakame and Ofu
• Cucumber with Konbu marinate
• Kochi Dorayaki (sweet filled pancake)

A couple of interesting points we learnt

• Here beef is available sliced very thinly strips from the butcher.  We would never be able to cut it as thin unless it was frozen.  They were as long as your index finger – makes cooking a much quicker!
• We’ve always loved the dorayaki you can buy in Japan.  The pancake mixture featured a couple of different flours, honey, bean paste, and mirin and were very simple to make.  The centre was a candied chestnut!

I’m looking forward to Kym cooking these dishes again when we get home!